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A modern AI browser

A modern AI browser

Posted Dec 17, 2025 7:44 UTC (Wed) by rrolls (subscriber, #151126)
In reply to: A modern AI browser by denials
Parent article: Mozilla gets a new CEO: Anthony Enzor-DeMeo

And, for the record, there _are_ some uses of AI I find useful:

- DuckDuckGo's Search Assist is useful more often than not, if I'm just quickly checking something.
- I use ChatGPT (on a free account) on an irregular basis - maybe once a month - mainly to look up something of the nature where a search engine would work if only I knew what to search for. For example, "there's this movie where XYZ happens, what was it called?" - and a more recent example, where it surprised me how well it performed - "here's a popular recreational maths problem, but can you find me papers about a specific very slightly different but related problem?" - I'd _never_ have figured that one out on my own. It's also useful when you want to do initial research on a programming language or library that you have zero experience with and want a starting point.
- I've used a local text AI as a rubber duck debugger a few times.
- Translation services, for _reading_, are invaluable, especially if they can be done locally (thus privately). I think Firefox is adding some kind of local translation AI - this is one of the few browser AI features I'd probably keep enabled.

Of course I'm still opposed (and I think most people are) to using AI for publishing (e.g. use AI to translate something if you're the only one that's going to read it; but don't publish something you ran through an AI translator, instead just let the reader run _their_ AI, on your handwritten work, into their preferred language if they wish). But these are some places where AI is genuinely helpful, so as much as I will ride the anti-AI bandwagon in general, I wouldn't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater.


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A modern AI browser

Posted Dec 17, 2025 9:49 UTC (Wed) by malmedal (subscriber, #56172) [Link]

> I think Firefox is adding some kind of local translation AI - this is one of the few browser AI features I'd probably keep enabled

It's been there for maybe two years, I think. Though it responds quickly to languages which haven't been downloaded, which makes me suspicious that probably it has an online fallback.

A modern AI browser

Posted Dec 17, 2025 15:55 UTC (Wed) by denials (subscriber, #3413) [Link] (2 responses)

The in-browser translation is the one AI feature in Firefox that I've appreciated. That's a great combination of usefulness and protection of privacy (vs dumping text into deepl or Google Translate).

Everything else they've done so far, I want turned off. Which currently means turning it off manually in every instance of Firefox I use, because those preferences don't sync.

The Mozilla Connect community forum has been filled for months with complaints about the existing AI features and begging the organization to just focus on being a web browser. The new CEO is ignoring their own community.

A modern AI browser

Posted Dec 18, 2025 10:19 UTC (Thu) by anselm (subscriber, #2796) [Link] (1 responses)

The Mozilla Connect community forum has been filled for months with complaints about the existing AI features and begging the organization to just focus on being a web browser. The new CEO is ignoring their own community.

Or those who (a) subscribe to the community forum and (b) feel strongly enough about the existing AI features to complain. There might be a silent majority that either likes the existing AI features just fine but doesn't want to engage in a shouting match with the AI detractors in the community forum, or quietly ignores the existing AI features outright, or else doesn't show up in the community forum in the first place.

The Mozilla people should obviously take note of what goes on in their community forum, but it would also be reasonable to assume that for them, the community forum is not the only source of input on what Firefox users are thinking.

A modern AI browser

Posted Dec 19, 2025 9:53 UTC (Fri) by taladar (subscriber, #68407) [Link]

Mozilla doesn't listen to feedback that they should focus on the browser anyway so lots of people have probably given up on that one.

And similarly, AI hype (and a tendency to put the latest hyped stuff into everything in general, see blockchain and cloud) seems to affect most CEOs anyway, no matter what anyone else says, so most people opposed to that have probably given up on trying to make them see sense by now too.


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